By Joel Thurtell
Time was when government officials would whine that citizens’ lawsuits were busting their budgets, that litigants were aiming at the perceived money-lined deep pockets of governments.
Now it’s the governments, strapped for cash in a lousy economy for tax revenues, that are targeting deep pockets.
Whose pockets?
Ours.
And those of businesses perceived as rich and likely to have the money that governments lack.
One way for governments with police departments to raise income is to write more traffic tickets. Detroit area police agencies have become notorious for handing out tickets. George Hunter of the Detroit News reported on Nov. 17, 2008, that the National Motorists Association rated metropolitan Detroit the worst in the country for speed traps.
The city of Plymouth wrote 440 tickets in 2002. In 2007, Plymouth cops wrote 2,584 tickets — a 487 percent rise, according to the News. Detroit nearly doubled its ticket production. Southfield’s ticket writing jumped by 131 percent. Dearborn Heights advanced its ticket writing by 60 pecent, Livonia by 49 percent.
Speed traps are one way — arbitrary, capricious, regressive, but effective — at bringing in money to governments with shrinking revenues.
Turns out there are other sneaky ways of imposing arbitrary taxes.
Used to be, police and fire officers responded to emergencies because that was, well, what they were about. It was their job.
Not now.
Seems governments have set their sights on a new set of deep pockets.
Utility companies.
With winds hitting 60 mph this past week, it was no surprise that more than a few electrical lines came down. Why, 230,000 DTE customers lost power.
Downed lines may still conduct electrical current, so it has been normal for cops and firefighters to guard them until utility repair crews show up to fix the damage.
The cops and firefighters still show up. The difference now is that in some towns, they’re billing the utilities for the time they spend watching the downed lines.
“Babysitting these power lines” is what Groveland Township Fire Chief Steve McGee calls the service his firefighters perform safeguarding citizens from electrical wires.
A good, stern babysitter is what’s needed to discipline public officials who think they can extort exorbitant fees from anyone with money in a wallet.
Incredible, but true: Ferndale is charging $250 an hour for a fire engine run to a downed power line and $40 an hour for each cop and firefighter involved in protecting citizens, according to a thoughtful story by Joe Rossiter of the Detroit Free Press.
Royal Oak charges $400 an hour for a fire engine and $50 an hour for each public safety officer.
DTE is outraged, given that the company already pays property taxes on extensive land and equipment holdings throughout meto Detroit.
I don’t blame the utilities. The wind is not their fault.
Remedies come to mind: Next time power lines go down in Ferndale or Royal Oak, how about simply cutting off electricity to the entire town?
Let them fix their own doggone lines.
Problem is, the residents are not at fault for ordinances enacted by buffoons masquerading as elected officials.
The situation reminds me of what happened some years ago when the city of Plymouth thought it could ticket CSX trains blocking traffic on city streets. I happened to write a story for the Free Press about the train blockages, and I quoted then 35th District Judge James Garber telling me how every so often Plymouth city attorneys and railroad lawyers came into his court to settle the fines, which could amount to $100,000 per court visit. Nice little gravy train for Plymouth.
Judge Garber remarked that CSX regarded the tickets as “the cost of doing business.”
CSX lawyers read my story. They didn’t think they should have to pay that particular “cost of doing business.”
Next thing Plymouth knew, CSX had the city in court defending its ticket-writing.
Guess what — Plymouth lost.
No more railroad tickets in Plymouth or anywhere in the state.
The courts yanked Plymouth’s hand out of CSX’s pocket.
I suspect that, as with the CSX case, this latest effort by communities to extort taxes from utilities will wind up in court.
DTE does have pockets, and it can pay good attorneys, just as CSX did.
Taxpayers could wind up paying this bill two ways. First, DTE may convince the Michigan Public Service Commission that — in the words of Judge Garber — community “babysitting” fees are the cost of doing business and should be passed on to consumers.
That’s us.
If that doesn’t work, DTE could simply tell those towns, as CSX told Plymouth, “See you in court.”
Guess who pays the city’s court bills?
I’d prefer that, though, because the court costs wouldn’t be spread over all of us DTE customers.
Those greed-blinded communities that are trying to suck service fees out of DTE seem to have forgotten that without the utility’s electrical generators and overhead lines, their towns would be in the dark, wind or no wind.
Drop me a line at joelthurtell(at)gmail.com
